Cats instinctively seek to bury their feces in loose, particulate material. To accommodate this natural behavior, various types of particulate materials, commonly called "litter," have long been commercially available to cat owners who place the litter in some form of receptacle for use by their pet inside the home. Commercially available litter material generally consists of calcined granular, absorbent clay, and often contains an odor-depressant chemical to reduce dispersion of waste odors. Cat litter is most commonly sold in waterproof paper sacks with tear strips for opening, although litter is also sold in boxes and plastic jugs.
There are a variety of receptacles for cat litter, the most common being a four-sided, open-topped tray, designed to hold a layer of litter up to several inches deep. The walls of the conventional litter tray are designed to extend vertically up to several inches above the top surface of the litter to reduce the spilling of litter over the sides of the tray as the cat digs and scratches to bury its waste.
One disadvantage of the conventional litter tray is that litter is frequently spilled onto the floor around the tray as the cat owner pours litter from the litter package into the tray. A second disadvantage of the litter tray is that, despite the somewhat elevated side walls, cats frequently kick litter over the sides of the tray in the process of burying their feces. This litter material is often clumped with urine or contaminated with fecal matter, creating an unsanitary and unpleasant cleanup task for the cat owner.
A third disadvantage of the conventional litter tray is that urine seeps down to the bottom layers of litter causing the litter material in contact with the floor and lower wall portions of the tray to form moistened, urine-saturated clumps which must be vigorously scraped and scrubbed in order to be removed. A fourth disadvantage is that because the conventional litter tray is generally made out of plastic or some other unfoldable, synthetic material, it is not readily disposable. Consequently, the tray must be cleaned each time a new batch of litter becomes too saturated or malodorous for continued use.
A fifth disadvantage of the conventional litter tray is that waste odors disperse freely into the air surrounding the litter tray, creating a zone of offensive odor in the vicinity of the tray. In summary, while cat owners find the conventional cat litter tray superior to providing no indoor receptacle for holding cat litter and receiving cat waste, the litter tray often becomes a source of foul odors and unsightly, unsanitary floor debris.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,901 ("the '901 patent") discloses an example of a disposable, folded cat box with filler material package. There, a folded cat box encloses a bag of cat litter which substantially fills the box. The box is opened by means of a tear strip extending across the top panel of the box and a short distance down the front and rear panels. To use the cat box of the '901 patent, the cat owner removes the tear strip and folds the top panels outwardly apart to form the walls of a four-sided litter tray. The filler material in the enclosed litter package is then poured from the package into the tray.
The '901 patent advanced the art by disclosing a disposable version of the conventional litter tray. However, problems associated with the conventional litter tray, such as spilling of litter as it is poured from the package into the tray, odor dispersion from the open tray top and the expelling of contaminated litter over the sides of the tray, remain.
Therefore, a primary object of this invention is to provide a cat litter box that will inhibit dispersion of waste odors, provide substantially improved containment of contaminated litter material and provide a more convenient and sanitary means for disposing of used cat litter.
Another object of the invention is to provide a cat box which eliminates the need to pour litter into the cat box, thereby reducing the incidence of litter spills.
Yet another object is to provide an improved means for shipping, handling and storing cat litter with reduced incidence of tearing and litter spillage.
Other objects will be apparent from the drawings and following detailed description of an illustrated embodiment.